Supervisors held off until next week any action on a ballot measure that would ask voters to pay anywhere from $90 to $120 more per year to register (bicycle coalition’s note: evil, rapacious death machines!) motor vehicles in San Francisco.
Talk for a local vehicle licensing fee has been ongoing while lawmakers in Sacramento discuss a return to the “2 percent of vehicle value fee,” which statewide vehicle owners haven’t had to worry about since 2003. The local legislation would see vehicle fees return to that level, but local lawmakers will wait for Sacramento’s move before making their own.
Vehicle fees have long been lower than that. A suggestion to return to the 2 percent of value fee was, you might recall, was one of the nails in then-Gov. Gray Davis’s coffin, and what helped nudge Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger into his current career.
While it would help balance the ledgers next fiscal year, a local vehicle fee could have a negative economic impact in the long run, according to a report issued by city economist Dr. Ted Egan.
Vehicle owners, facing the higher tax, would be inclined to ask for higher wages or pay less in rent or mortgage, he said. Or perhaps charge their kids for rides to school?
